Crisis in Pacific: warships sail north

By Louise Dodson and Cynthia Banham

May 13, 2006 — 10.00am

AUSTRALIA is on high alert for more trouble in its neighbourhood and is preparing to send troops to East Timor and Fiji if needed to quell uprisings.

The navy is sending four ships, including troop carriers and a frigate, to northern waters to be ready if East Timor requests further military help to restore order. And the army's 2RAR unit, based in Townsville, has been put on alert.

Mob violence broke out in East Timor two weeks ago, but East Timor's Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, said: "East Timor does not need a peacekeeping force, because there is no war in East Timor." He said, however, that more international police would help stability.

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Australia is also closely watching Fiji with fears it could erupt into chaos after claims its elections have been rorted. Voting began last weekend, although the result has yet to be announced.

There are concerns that another significant deployment could overstretch the Australian Defence Force, which already has 2150 men and women overseas and is facing a personnel crisis. Another 240 soldiers are due in Afghanistan in July as a part of a provincial reconstruction team.

The US is worried about East Timor. The Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, called the Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, last weekend and is understood to have told him the US was "right behind" any action Australia took.

The Kanimbla, Manoora and Tobruk, all troop carriers, and the frigate HMAS Adelaide are on the move to northern Australia.

As the Prime Minister, John Howard, left yesterday for a two-week trip to the US, Canada and Ireland, he said the Government had received "absolutely no requests" for military help from East Timor, "but I simply repeat that what the military does quite sensibly is use its assets in such a way that if we were to receive a request we'd be able to respond". Australia has been in high-level discussions this week with East Timor over the potential for further violence. The Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, indicated support for the Government sending troops to East Timor if asked.

After the deployment of extra troops to the Solomon Islands last month the executive director of the Australia Defence Association, Neil James, warned that the army would be stretched if another significant crisis hit the region.

The Defence Force is already 1500 people short of its personnel target, while the army wants to raise its own numbers by another 1485 troops over the next decade.

Mr James said a "nightmare scenario" for Australia would be a serious law-and-order or political breakdown in Papua New Guinea, because the army was not big enough to handle it.

"The army does need to be bigger for all the contingencies we might have to use it for," he said, "and yet we're finding it increasingly harder to even keep the army at its current size."

Mr Howard yesterday ruled out involvement in any military action in Iran. "I'm not in favour of other than trying to achieve a diplomatic solution."

He did not rule out troops in Iraq's Al Muthanna province being sent to more dangerous areas after the Japanese engineers they were protecting withdrew.